Hi,
'abseil' is the word used in British English, even by gritty,
unpretentious mountaineering types. We also recognise 'rappel',
which is also from French so probably no more and no less pretentious.
On the one occasion when I foolishly volunteered for this activity I
abseiled down the side of a very tall building; this meant that I had
to 'walk' down it. If there had been any hostages to rescue I'm sure
I'd have been allowed to bounce like the SAS, but we had strict
instructions from the organisers not to do that. Besides, there were
no windows to swing through, and I'd have looked pretty foolish trying
to swing through a brick wall.
---
Bob
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"Art is a form of play, not to be taken seriously" - Plato
Saturday, May 19, 2001, 7:41:19 AM, you wrote:
> Actually, I thought rappelling was the english term and
> abseiling was french. Abseiling is not in my dictionary,
> rappelling is. Nor does my spell checker recognize
> abseiling. I always figured folks who said abseiling were
> just being pretentious.
> --Tom
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